Ice Series Part Two: Ice
by Soulfull Ishida
Summary: Ken just can't take it anymore, and is gonna try to commit suicide. When Daisuke finds out, can he save his best friend before it's too late? Rated PG for suicidal themes.


Ice  
Song by Sarah McLachlin  
Story by Soulfull Ishida  
  
  
Author's Notes and Notations: Howdy! I'm finally thirteen, and this is the first story I'm gonna write (and finish) at this lovely age! Something's wrong with Ken, and when Daisuke finds out what it is, he realizes he doesn't have much time to save his best friend from his horrid fate. Rated PG-13 for suicidal themes and slight cursing. Please enjoy, and review! BTW, the Sumida River is, I think, the river between Tamachi and Odaiba, thoughts are expressed by ~ ~, and lyrics are expressed with @ @.  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
@ The ice is thin,   
Come on dive in  
Underneath my lucid skin  
The cold is lost, forgotten. @  
  
The boy stood on the edge of the Sumida River, staring at the thin sheet   
of ice spread over it, sparkling with the light of the setting sun. He could only imagine what the water underneath felt like; cold, encompassing, wonderful. He closed his eyes as he envisioned what it would be like to be trapped underneath that beautiful, cold ice. A person would swim hard, fighting the fierce current and the freezing temperatures. Soon they would manage to reach that ice, and as their blood started to slow, they would pound weakly at the surface, trying to break through, to reach the atmosphere and get another   
breathe of air. Their efforts would get weaker and weaker with each passing moment, until they got so utterly exhausted; they would just give up and slowly start to drift to the bottom. Their eyes would slowly close, and the person, that damned person who had the luck to get trapped under the ice in the first place, would die. Ichijouji Ken smiled at this image. Drowning is bad, but drowning under ice must be the worst death possible.   
The perfect death for an imperfect person like him.  
  
@ Hours pass, days pass  
Time stands still  
Light gets dark and darkness fills  
My secret, heart forbidden. @  
  
Ken slowly bent down and tapped at the ice. It didn't crack, which was good. If he managed to reach the surface once underneath, he didn't want to be able to break through.  
He wanted to die.  
Most people would shudder at this thought, wonder what could be so horrible about life that it must end. ~ Well, guess what. All people die. Everything in existence ends. From the smallest grain of sand to the immense universe. It all ends someday. Does it really matter if my life ends sooner than expected?  
No, it doesn't. ~  
  
@ I think you worried for me then  
The subtle ways that I'd give in  
But I know  
You liked the show. @  
  
Ken slowly started to cross over the ice, waiting for it to break under him. This was another perfection to his death plan. The suspense of not knowing when the ice would break, and you would be pulled under, would be enough to drive any normal person insane.  
The boy was not a normal person.  
He started to hear slight cracking, and closed his eyes, waiting for the ice to break.   
Instead, he heard a voice calling his name.  
"Ken! Ken, what are you doing? The ice might break! Get off it before something happens!" Daisuke Motomiya shouted as he ran towards him. Daisuke stopped at the riverbed, and reached his hand out for the boy on the brink of death.  
"Here's what I'm doing, Motomiya. I'm ending it all. When the ice breaks," Ken   
tapped his foot on the ice, "I'm gone. And that's exactly what I want." Daisuke's   
innocent chocolate eyes widened at the words.  
"Ken...y-you can't. Just...just take my hand and walk off the ice. W-we can help you," the younger boy stuttered, shocked by the words coming out of the Rocket's mouth.  
  
@ Tied down to this bed of shame  
Tried to move around the pain,   
But, oh  
Your soul is anchored. @  
  
Ken looked at the hand offered to him with hatred and...what was that? Longing?  
"Ken, you don't have to end it here. Live your life. Wormmon would want you to."  
"Well, Wormmon isn't here, is he? He died! He left me...he promised he would   
never leave...that just proves it, doesn't it, Daisuke? Promises can't be kept. No one stays with me. Everyone leaves..." Ken started to walk farther out, ignoring the crackling of the ice. Daisuke, a look of terror at what he was doing and determination to save Ken, followed carefully, stopping every time the ice made a noise. He reached Ken and rested his tanned hand on his shoulder. The elder flinched, then turned his head, tears in his violet-blue eyes, dampening his thick eyelashes.   
  
@ The only comfort is the moving of the river  
You enter into me a lie upon your lips.  
Offer what you can, I'll take all that I can get  
Only two fools here. @  
  
"Daisuke, I don't know what to do anymore. My life has shattered around me like glass. When my mother died, and my father started to neglect me, spending all his time staring at nothing or mourning, I felt like I was torn in two. Then Wormmon was killed at the school shootout...I should have never brought him to school! I wish I had been shot instead!" Ken screamed, then collapsed into Daisuke's arms, sobs wracking through his body. Daisuke's eyes widened in surprise, then he held Ken close to him, comforting the black-haired boy as his cries echoes throughout the silent evening. "Why has this happened, Daisuke? Why?"  
"I can't answer that, Ken. I can only help you get by it."  
  
@ I don't like your tragic sighs  
As if your god has passed you by  
Well, hey, fool  
That's your deception. @  
  
Ken looked up into Daisuke's eyes, shuddering as his hand circled on his back."Then answer me this. Why do you care what happens to me? No one else does, not father, nor mother, nor Wormmon. Will you leave like they did?"  
'Ken, I'll never leave you. You need me too much. You need a friend, and that's why I'm here. I'm here for you, and don't forget it," Daisuke said with a weak smile at his friend. Ken looked away, afraid to look Daisuke in the eye.  
"What if I have already forgotten, Daisuke? What if I have lost hope? What will happen to you if I keep walking across the ice? What will you do if it breaks? Would you care?" the elder boy murmured, his face buried in Daisuke's bomber jacket. Ken was terrified of the answer he might get to his next question, but he knew he had to ask it. He had to know the truth.  
"Would you remember me?"  
  
@ Your angels speak with jilted tongue  
The serpent's tale has come undone  
You have no  
Strength to squander. @  
  
Daisuke's eyes widened, and he looked down at the shuddering boy in his arms. Ken had always been the perfect child, the genius, the athlete, the computer whiz, everything. He never had a visible fault- except for the darkness that kept growing in him, destroying him from the inside out. Ken was a fragile boy, and was holding on to his sanity by a very thin thread.  
It was obvious that the thread had snapped, but Daisuke was willing to catch Ken before he fell and give him a new, strong rope.   
"I'll always remember you, Ken, no matter what you chose. But I want you to live, to stay with me. What would our friends say if they knew that you kept walking? What would your father say?" Daisuke pleaded with Ken. He was trying to dissuade Ken from making the biggest mistake of his life- the one that would end it. Ken pushed away from Daisuke, tears still streaming down his face.  
"They won't care. Miyako, Iori, Takeru, Hikari...they'll just go on with their lives, and they'll forget. As for Papa...if he even notices that I'm gone, that will be a shock. Daisuke, I hope you uphold your promise and never forget me. Tell the others that I would understand if they didn't care that I died, but that they meant the world to me. Tell Miyako...tell her that I loved her from the bottom of my heart, and that I wish it didn't have to end this way. And as for you... you're my best friend, Daisuke, and I love you for it. Goodbye," Ken whispered, controlling his sobs and halting his tears. He was going to die strong, just like Osamu, just like his mother, just like Wormmon. He started   
to walk out farther, where the ice was not as strong as it was at the surface. Daisuke   
stared after him, tears filling his chocolate eyes. Snow started to fall.  
"Ken, just answer me this. Did it matter? Did I matter?"  
Ken stopped in his tracks and turned around to answer.  
  
@ The only comfort is the moving of the river  
You enter into me a lie upon your lips  
Offer what you can  
I'll take all that I can get... @  
  
The ice broke under Ken's feet before he could answer.   
A scream echoed through the twilight sky that still haunts Daisuke's nightmares to this day, seventeen years later. One minute passed. Two. Daisuke heard slight tapping on the ice, sounding frantic and weak. Three minutes. Four. The tapping had finally stopped, and Daisuke saw a scarf- Ken's scarf- float to the surface of the hole. Ken was nowhere to be seen.   
A tear slipped down Daisuke's face as he bent down and picked up the scarf, clutching it to his chest. He slowly swayed gently as he walked back to shore, silent sobs shaking through his body. Daisuke Shinji Motomiya looked back at the cold, beautiful ice, remembering all the times he had spent with Ken, up until his last moment. He looked down at the scarf, mumbling something that echoed throughout the sky, into the heavens above, like a prayer. He then turned and walked to Inoue Miyako's apartment to tell her the news. And as he left the river, he felt part of his heart die, and that part has never come back, after so much time.  
  
"Only a fool's here..."   
  
*~* Otari *~*  
  
Ending Notes and Notations: Well? What do you wonderful readers think? Good?   
Stinky? All comments accepted! The sequel, Miyako's Way, is well under way, and if   
you readers want, I'll make a story for all the other DD's and their reaction to Ice. I   
suppose that's it....  
Ken: What about our comments?  
Soul: Go ahead...comment.  
Davis: ..........what was up with that fic?  
Devon: Yeah! You do realize that EvilAngel's gonna kill you.  
Ken: I kind of liked it...  
Tai: That's because you starred in it!  
Mimi: But he did die.........sob........  
Sora: I th-  
Soul: AND that's it from us, folks! See ya for the sequel(s)! ........hopefully.  
Sora: grumble...... 


End file.
